Monthly Archives: January 2014

I’m sure everyone has this, but when I think of friends, I often think of the food we made or enjoyed together. I am such a creature of routine, that when I think of a friend, I will think of a meal that we made and ate together over and over again, because it brought us together, required no thought as we were making it and was enjoyed as one of the things we liked about each other and had in common. Continue reading childhood friends and recipes…→

A little confession first, I have tried this before. I was craving homemade bread around Thanksgiving weekend 2013 and this happened to coincide with the second weekend I had ever spent with Handsome’s family, so I was understandably nervous and reverting back into my foodmaking cocoon. As usual, I was waking up at 5am with my mind ticking through recipes and I got up to try making Jamie Oliver’s banana honey bread and Nigella’s rosemary bread. Continue reading breadmaking – previous tries…→

I can’t help it. I love a good dinner party, especially the ones I host myself. There’s something about cooking for just me and Handsome that doesn’t quite satisfy the exhibitionist in me. I want to cook large quantities of food, for large quantities of people, and I want them to love my food and enjoy the convivial atmosphere that we offer. Backpacking around Australia, I cooked for anyone that would let me. In the ME, I would have folks round to dinner all the time. Continue reading dinner party tales…→

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but in every country you go to in the world, they have their own breads and bread eccentricities. It seems obvious, we all easily think of French bread, german rye, American bagels. But if you truly love bread, as I do (far too much as it turns out – I can see a direct correlation between the amount of bread I eat and the easiness of doing up my jeans), you notice the small things and it’s these things that you miss and crave when you move onto the next country/continent/whatever… Continue reading breadmaking…→

And what, might you ask, is biga? Well, this time last week, I would have looked blankly at you in response to that little question. I have no idea how I could have got through my life without knowing the little intricacies of breadmaking, but if you are in the breadmaking club, you will know that biga is a pre-ferment for italian breads. The French apparently have this too, but it’s called Poolish there. Never heard of that either. Biga came into my life as ciabatta is my favourite kind of bread. Continue reading biga…→

So, around our kitchen “bar” table, which seats four comfortably and six uncomfortably, there will be six adults, and on the “kids” dining table there will be minimum 5, and up to 7, depending on if the kids have friends round.

The designated invitees this time are the three ladies from work whom I force to listen to my daily discussions on that evening or weekend’s menu, plus a lucky husband and two lucky kids. Needless to say, I have bored these women so much, or made them so hungry, either of which is an uncomfortable feeling, that I feel they deserve my very best efforts and my most ingenious ideas. Continue reading Dinner Party for minimum 11 – Teeny tiny house…→

Here I am, a Brit in the United States of America. Not an unusual tale, you might say, but since this is the fifth continent I have worked on, and since I am a VERY serious working girl (not in that way, saucy!), who can’t think of anything but food, buying it, preparing it, conjuring it up in new ways to impress whomever. Continue reading Greetings…→